Srilanka

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has instructed officials to bring back all Sri Lankans including students in Wuhan and Sichuan provinces where the coronavirus is fast spreading.The PresidentOffice, the Ministry of Foreign Relations, Ministry of Health, Sri Lankan Embassy in Beijing and SriLankan Airlines have joined together in this exercise.Once the traveling restrictions imposed on Wuhan city is lifted, all Sri Lankan students there will immediately be brought back. Their cost of air travel will be borne by the government.

Foreign Relations Minister Dinesh Gunawardane has instructed officials of the Sri Lankan Embassy in Beijing to keep the Embassy open round the clock. This is to facilitate the Sri Lankan community in China to reach or contact the Embassy and obtain support. The Embassy is currently gathering the information of Sri Lankans and Sri Lankan students residing in China.

On the instructions of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday, the Sri Lanka Embassy in Beijing today, submitted an application to land a Sri Lankan Airlines aircraft in Wuhan city airport to airlift 32 Sri Lankan students including their family members. The Embassy is closely following up with the Foreign Ministry of China and Foreign Affairs Office of the Wuhan Province to expedite the process of obtaining clearance for the landing of the aircraft, as soon as they are allowed to travel out of their present locations.

The Ministry, Embassy and Consulate Generals are also working with the Sri Lankan Airlines in seeking to operationalize instructions to bring back all other Sri Lankan students presently in China. It is estimated that presently approximately 860 students remain in China, spread in various city centres throughout the country.

Meanwhile, the Embassy in Beijing, Consulate Generals in Guangzhou and Shanghai are in constant touch with the Sri Lankan students in Wuhan and other parts of China to provide information with regard to the precautionary measures to be taken to prevent any infection. The Mission and posts have not received any information on any Sri Lankans infected by the Coronavirus.

In order to provide assistance to the Sri Lankan students and professionals living in China who wish to return to Sri Lanka, the Foreign Relations Ministry in collaboration with its Mission in Beijing and Posts in Shanghai and Guangzhou has secured the immediate application of 50% discount on the airfare of Sri Lankan Airlines for its regular flights operating to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. All Sri Lankan citizens who would like to travel to Sri Lanka from China will be able to obtain 50% discount of the marked fare by calling the Sri Lankan Airlines call center on 0094-777771979.

Comprising 22member highly qualified medical experts the Health Ministry has appointed national Action Committee (NAC) to prevent the spread of the new Coronavirus in Sri Lanka. The appointment was made by Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi on the instructions given by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.